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order restrictions and lockdown measures ensured this year’s Africa Down
B Under would be vastly different to previous renditions but with more than 30
company presentations and in excess of 600 online delegates, the 2020 event still
managed to showcase the best of the Australian-African mining relationship.

he conference has established itself as
Tthe premier Australian-African forum
over the past 17 years and despite the lack
of international attendees, Africa Down Un-
der had its usual combination of govern-
ment relations, investor discussions and
industry insight.
As part of the reformed programme line-
up, opening session chair Liam Twigger
asked the opening session speakers about
the future of Australian mining’s investment
in Africa.
Base Resources Ltd managing director
Tim Carstens was the first to respond, tell-
ing Twigger it was important to communi-
cate what mining projects could deliver to
communities and governments.
“Expectations start high and just get
higher. We have learnt to be transparent as
much as possible,” Carstens said.
On the issue of COVID, Resolute Min-
ing Ltd’s interim chief executive Stuart Gale
said it wasn’t the first time West Africa had
dealt with pandemic-related public health corporate activity. change in management have left it vulnera-
crises. The situation is being led by Cardinal ble to predators while Perseus Mining Ltd is
“We’ve had Ebola and the seasonal ma- Resources Ltd. A long-term participant in preparing to start commissioning on its third
laria issue we need to deal with,” he said. Africa Down Under, Cardinal had to pull West African mine, Yaoure in Cote d’Ivoire,
“So, in many respects it was a dusting off out of this year’s event due to the ongoing which will free up time and resources for
the old playbook and implementing those corporate saga which has turned into a bid- other ventures.
measures. And it has been a continual ding war for the ASX-listed company at its West African Resources Ltd has travelled
thing. The important thing is to ensure it 5.1 moz Namdini gold project in northern through several investment windows with-
doesn’t get onto site.” Ghana. out fielding any serious takeover offers but
On the corporate front, it was gold M&A Chinese group Shandong Gold Ltd and even its executive chairman Richard Hyde
activity which dominated proceedings. Russian firm Norgold are engaged in an is conscious of the possible scenarios.
After recent movements among Austral- auction which has seen the bid price rise “There’s always a lot of interest from oth-
ian domestic gold players and then TSX from 60c/share in June to $1.05 by Novem- er companies but there is nothing we can
companies in West Africa (see page 68), ber. update the market on at the moment. I like
investors eyes are focusing sharply on Aus- The question remaining is who is next? what I see from the juniors,” he said.
tralian companies for the next round of Resolute’s operational problems and Firefinch Ltd has proven the ample op-
portunities that lie in wait for ambitious jun-
iors in the current environment. Last month
it finalised the acquisition of an 80% inter-
est in Morila, one of the region’s biggest his-
torical mines, from Barrick Gold Corp and
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd in November. For
executive chairman Alistair Cowden, the
deal should be just the start of Firefinch’s
journey.
“If you are a single mine company there
are two things you should be thinking about:
who am I going to buy and who is going to
buy me,” he said. “Single mine companies
don’t really have a future but there is op-
portunity [for Australian companies]. Let’s
get out there ahead of the Chinese and the
Russians.”
– Dominic Piper

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT DeC 2020 - JaN 2021 Page 33